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Host Canada makes big splash

Pan Am Games 'open' with big day on lake for Canadians

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Posted: Friday July 23, 1999 12:16 AM

Golden smile: Stephen Giles captured Canada's first gold in the men's 1,000-meter canoe. AP

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) -- Canada is on top of the world - or at least the Pan Am Games medals table for a day.

With a pair of golds in canoeing and kayaking, the host nation of the 13th Americas regional Olympics sat atop the competition Thursday, the day before it officially began.

Canada has never finished higher than second in the medals race of the quadrennial event. The United States has won it every time since the event began in 1951.

The one time Canada did finish second was the only other time it hosted the Pan Ams, in 1967 -- in Winnipeg.

Stephen Giles won a gold in canoeing, and then was joined by Canada's four-woman 500-meter kayaking team. The sibling canoe doubles pair Tamas and Attila Buday took a gold, and Adrian Richardson won a bronze.

Argentina also won a pair of golds in the water Thursday while the United States and Cuba took one each on Lake Minnesdosa.

They were the first six of 717 gold medals to be awarded in the 18 days of competition for 5,100 sportsmen and women from 42 nations.

But the Games weren't to officially start until Friday night, when a 3,400-person extravaganza mixing music, dance and local traditions kicks off the event with the opening ceremony at Winnipeg Stadium.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a 250-piece pipe and drum band and 500 performers from 28 cultural groups also got in their final rehearsal.

Competitors in soccer, water polo and volleyball had their final practices for their competitions, which were to start with games for both men and women in all three sports.

Six more medals were on tap in canoeing and kayaking for Friday.

On Thursday, Giles, a world champion in his event, came home with Canada's first gold, capturing the men's 1,000-meter canoe singles crown in 4 minutes, 6.130 seconds.

"I knew I had a good chance to win this race, being the world champion, but it was a bit closer than I would have liked," Giles said.

Giles finished more than three seconds ahead of silver-medal winning and defending champion Ledys Balciero of Cuba, and nearly 12 seconds ahead of third-placed Jose Romero of Mexico.

Canada's other gold came from Karen Furneaux, Marie-Josee Gibeau-Ouimet, Carrie Lightbound and Liza Racine, who won the women's 500-meter kayak fours in 1:41.546, nearly two seconds ahead of the Cuban boat.

It was the second Pan Ams gold for Gibeau-Ouimet, who also won the event at the '95 Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

In the other events, the Baday brothers were overtaken at the finish by Cubans Leobaldo Pereira and Ibrahin Rojas, the second straight time the Badays have been beaten by a Cuban boat at the Pan Ams.

Pereira and Rojas finished in 3:59.25 - the only gold but one of five medals for Cuba on the day, 1.72 seconds ahead of the Canadians.

Earlier, Richardson won Canada's first medal of the Games, finishing third in the men's 1,000-meter kayak race behind Javier Correa of Argentina and Sebastian Cuattri of Brazil.

It was the first of two golds for Correa, who returned with Abelardo Sztrum to win the 1,000-meter doubles crown.

"This medal is for Argentina," the 3-year-old Correa said after his solo honor. "This is a good way to open the games for us."

Correa's victories repeated his performance at Mar del Plata.

Correa finished the 1,000 meters in 3:39.527, more than three seconds ahead of Brazil's Sebastian Cuattrin and nearly five seconds ahead of Richardson.

He and Sztrum weren't nearly as dominant in the 1,000-meter K2, but still crossed the finish nearly two seconds ahead of Brazilian pair Carlos Campos and Cuattrin again.

Stein Jorgensen, Peter Newton, Justin Piasecki and John Mooney got the U.S. off to what is expected will be a traditional romp in the medals race. The quartet finished the men's K4 1,000 event in 3:15.52, nearly three seconds ahead of the Cuban boat.

In the history of the Pan Ams, the United States has won 1,427 gold medals, nearly 2 1/2 times more than the next closest nation - Cuba. Only once has the United States ever been beaten in the gold medal tally, that in 1991 by host Cuba.

 

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